We had such a great week at SNF! Things went very smoothly and there was a good turn out every day.
The reception of our project was very positive! We were very pleased with how a lot of pilots and builders appreciated how simple the features of the Panther are designed. Do not mis-read, it is not that the Panther is not well designed, but how the attention to the small, but versatile features are simply designed, without over complicating the assemblies. The wing fold, the rudder adjustment, the seat back and pan adjustment are all great assemblies that builders find useful, and Dan has designed a simple and effective way to accomplished this – and it is well received and appreciated.
Night #3 we had a storm scare – so the guys simply walked back to the booth and quickly tucked the wings in and pushed the Panther into the trailer. After she was safely tucked away we all kind of took a look around at all the other airplanes around, with the wind gusting to 30 miles or so and lighteneing flashing the sky, and said “there really is something to be said for knowing the airplane is tucked way in the cozy little Panther cave….”
We had all different varieties of interested vendors and fellow designers stop buy to take a look at the Panther.
John and Jeremy Monnett with Sonex took the time to stop by and talk with us for a few moments. I had not seen Jeremy since SNF probably 12 years or so ago, not since Dan was scouting them out for his scratch built Sonex/Cleanex project.
Even Mr. VanGrunsven himself took a moment to congratulate Dan and his design.
The cookout was a great time as well. We had new and old friends and builders join us for hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, and my home made cole slaw which went very quickly!
We also had a tremendous amount of compliments regarding the looks of the Panther. Hands down everyone agrees she is a beautiful airplane – and we heard the old adage a hundred times this week if not more “The better an airplane looks, the better she flies!”.
And the Panther flies amazing so far. Speaking of flying, that is the one thing that was pulling Dan away from wanting to be at SNF – so he could come back and fly more. We have a quite a few more test flights to perform. Then we will be offering kit pricing and sub-components online at our website. We have a list of interested kit/plans builders who signed up at SNF to be notified when we are ready to start shipping tail kits. We will honor the shipping according to the order of the list. If you are interested in getting added to the list then please email me at Rachel@FlywithSPA.com with your interest and contact info.
Thank you to all of the Team Panther members/volunteers who helped get us to SNF and who manned the booth with us this week – we could not have done it with out you guys! Hats off to Chris and Michelle Smith, Chris Welsh, William and Grace Wynne, Hans and Jacob Mankinen, Robert Woolley (Panther Sport Beta Builder), Jim and Rhonda Weseman, Dayton and Donna Wilson, Vern Stevenson , Gary and Vicki Coppen, Mike Schwab and Michelle Tomalo and Paul Salter. We owe you guys so big! Thank you for sharing this great time at SNF with us!
– Go Team Panther!
